Project Overview
This project involved two educational approaches aimed at improving the business practices and reducing risk of newly started farms in business 2-10 years.
The first approach was to host farmer to farmer networking meetings on a monthly basis starting Nov, Dec, 2012 and Jan., Feb, Mar, 2013. We invited farmers known for expertise in a particular subject to speak to the targeted audience of newer farmers.
Topics included: crop records, enterprise budgets, adding enterprises, decision-making, income and saving, hiring and labor management, taxes, production topics, and marketing. We promoted the meetings to a general farm audience with a focus on newer farms. The audience also included more seasoned farmers. A total of 157 individuals representing 45 farms attended the winter networking meetings. The most impactful presentation that seemed to spur changes was given by Paul & Sandy Arnold, farmers from Washington County, that shared their crop record keeping system and strategies for increasing farm efficiency that leads to income and a higher quality of life. Other sessions which had a significant impact included - tax strategies and business records.
The second approach was to identify candidate farms who would benefit from one-one farm business consultation. The criteria for selecting farms was to identify those who were at a decision-making crossroads in terms of expansion, adding enterprises, making purchases, or refining business operations. We hired a Farm Business Consultant from Farm Credit East. None of the farmers had ever used the services of a consultant. A total of 12 farms met with the consultant. Several were given the opportunity for multiple meetings. The farms indicated a variety of insights from the meetings and actions they would take. Several specific actions include: changes in Quickbooks coding, preparing a loan application, decisions to stay out of debt, tax benefits not taken before, need for longer term planning, need for increasing income through more active marketing, etc. The range of business skills varied widely among these farmers. All came to appreciate the value of an outside adviser who could review their status and help set goals. A final meeting was held with the consultant and farmers to share key findings in the consultation process and to present a simple boiled down approach to assessing business profit (26 attendees).
As extension educators we benefited by gaining a better understanding of the level of business knowledge and weaknesses that newer farmers have in their knowledge, as a result, we can be more strategic in the classes and services we provide. Our goal is to help these newer farmers succeed and we now have better insights into what is needed to help newer farmers achieve success.
Number of Participants: 173
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
There are no promotional materials available for this project.
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
There are no educational materials available for this project.
REPORTS & EVALUATIONS
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